Will you look at this. Just look at it. In fact, click on it to embiggen, then drool. I’ll wait.

Spaghetti squash is where it’s at, my friends. Stuffed as pictured, or as a pasta replacement with bolognese, or just by itself with butter and garlic. It’s AMAZING. Once you get past the slightly-scary process of cutting it in half stem-to-butt, it’s really easy to prepare. And I have a tip for that cutting thing.

One thing to note about this recipe, I usually only use one half of the squash to make two generous servings for me and my husband, with a portion left over for lunch the next day (OH MY GOD SUCH GOOD LEFTOVERS). After cooking wrap the other half (shredded and removed to a bowl, or intact) and place it in the fridge for another use. It heats up extremely well.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray (I cover mine in foil first for easy cleanup)
2. Trim stem ends so the squash can sit upright on a cutting board
3. Using a paring knife, poke a dashed line down each side of the squash where you’ll be cutting
4. Place squash in the microwave and cook on high for two minutes
5. Remove from microwave and cut down along the scored lines, cutting the squash in half
6. Remove seeds and fibers from the squash halves
7. Brush each side with olive oil, and sprinkle with your selection of spices, salt and pepper (I use Tastefully Simple’s Garlic Garlic Seasoning, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of Tabasco)
8. Place each half cut side down on the cookie sheet. Place in the preheated oven and roast for 40 minutes for smallish squash, or 45 minutes for largeish squash
9. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, then use a fork or tongs to shred one half of the squash. Place shredded squash in a large bowl. Save the other half for a future use.

Prepare Chicken Enchilada stuffing

1. While the squash is roasting, heat olive oil in a medium skillet.
2. Combine chicken, enchilada sauce, green chiles, green onions, corn, black beans, and cilantro in the skillet and heat until bubbly
3. Toss mixture in the bowl with the shredded spaghetti sauce strands until combined, then spoon all of it back into the squash shell
4. Top with shredded cheese, and return to oven. Broil under medium setting for about five minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.
5. Remove from oven, cut squash shell in half, and serve each half on individual plates with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste

Bill and I were getting bored with the same recipes, and he has a favorite Lemon Thyme Chicken dish he gets all the time at a local restaurant. This was my attempt at – not recreating it, exactly – re-imagining it and (as he said) improving upon it. Take the time to roast the Brussels sprouts beforehand and add them into the dish at the end, it really improves the flavor. And, seriously, use cast iron skillets for the sprouts and the chicken. Things brown and caramelize so very nicely!

Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the sprouts and toss to coat. Pour the sprouts into a large cast-iron skillet lightly coated with olive oil. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes, stirring and turning the sprouts once halfway through the cooking time. Remove from oven and allow to rest in the skillet while the rest of the meal is prepared.

To prepare the chicken:

In a small bowl, combine the Italian seasoning, thyme, garlic powder, and pepper. Divide the mixture and reserve one half of it for later. Using your hands, rub the other half of the seasoning into the four strips of chicken. Heat a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet. Cook chicken over medium heat about 5 minutes on each side, until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer chicken to a plate and cover to keep warm.

Still over medium heat, use 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to deglaze the bottom of the skillet. Add the remaining broth, lemon juice, and remaining seasoning mixture. Slowly whisk in the cream and continue to whisk until mixture begins to simmer and thicken. Still stirring, add in the sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Return the chicken to the skillet (Bill prefers that I use a spatula to cut the chicken into large-ish chunks at this point), and add in the roasted Brussels sprouts. Toss everything in the sauce to coat. Remove the skillet from the heat and cover with a large lid. Allow to rest for about five minutes to thicken and allow the flavors to mingle. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I make a batch of these every couple of weeks. They’re so awesome you’ll never go back to the store-bought stuff again. These are pickled in the refrigerator, so they are NOT shelf-stable. Keep them in the fridge and they’ll last as long as you’ll need them to. While they’re awesome right away, I recommend that you let them hang out in the fridge for a week or two before eating. They just get better with time.

Wash the jalapenos and cut into “bottle caps”, or rings. Discard stems.

Fill a large bowl with very warm water. Remove the lids from two pint jars (mine are purple!), and submerge them in the water. This will bring the jars up to temperature prior to filling them with hot jalapenos and liquid.

Combine water, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt in a large saucepan. Stir until salt and sugar are dissolved, and bring to a boil. Add the jalapenos, pushing them down to submerge them in the liquid. Remove them from the heat and allow to sit, uncovered, for fifteen minutes. You’ll notice that the color will go from bright green to a duller green color.

Remove the jars from the warm water. Using tongs, transfer the jalapenos from the saucepan into the jars, evenly distributing them between the two. I usually start by digging out the four cloves of garlic and making sure each jar gets two apiece.

Next, ladle the liquid into each jar until the liquid reaches near the top of the jar. Attach the lids and bands and allow to sit on the counter until completely cooled. Store in the refrigerator – the jalapenos can be eaten right away but we’ve found that they taste best after sitting in the refrigerator for a week.

We use these in and on everything. Omelettes, cheeseburgers, salads, crackers and cheese, marinades, deviled eggs, tuna salad, sandwiches, soups and stews, baked salmon, pretty much anything going in the crock pot… we’re a little obsessed.

An excellent, all-in-one skillet meal that’s delicious and comforting on a chilly evening. Make sure you marinade the chicken for at least 4 hours, up to 24. Choose your preferred heat of Italian sausage, we tend to go with mild. Serves 2-4, depending on how starving you are. Leftovers are fabulous.

Add all ingredients except for lemon into a large ziploc bag. Cut the lemon into quarters, squeeze the juice into the bag, then put the rinds in with the rest of the marinade ingredients. Seal the bag, squish it all around to mix the ingredients, open it up and put the chicken breasts inside, seal it and squish it around again, then put it in the fridge to marinade.

To prepare:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Take the chicken out of the refrigerator (but leave it in the bag of marinade) while you prep the rest of the meal. Wash and quarter the potatoes, and cut the sausages in half lengthwise. Dump the chicken, marinade and all, into a large cast iron skillet, then pick out the lemon rinds. Place the potatoes and sausages among and around the chicken, and stir a bit to coat with the marinade.

Place in the center rack of the oven and cook for 45 minutes, turning the chicken and sausages over halfway through. Remove from the oven when the time is up, and stir around a bit to allow the potatoes to help thicken the sauce. You could also use a spatula to cut the chicken and sausages into bite-sized chunks and mix the whole shebang all together.

Serve with your veg of choice, we usually go with asparagus or green beans.

My husband was in Santa Fe last week, and had a meal (or two) at our favorite restaurant, The Pink Adobe. He raved about their New Mexico Green Chile Stew (and took a photo of it, and sent it to me, and rubbed in the fact that he was dining deliciously while I was making do with plate full of sauteed snap peas and green beans – I eat weirdly when he’s out of town). So last weekend we procured the ingredients and set out to recreate the dish.

A few things to note: First, I HIGHLY recommend roasting your own (Hatch) green chiles. Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never done it – it’s incredibly easy and you will NEVER EVER buy canned or frozen green chiles again. The second thing to note – you could use canned peeled whole tomatoes, but it’s SUPER easy to peel your own fresh tomatoes, and I think it improves the flavor. And third, this stew is incredibly versatile – you can use pork, chicken, or beef. It would probably taste great with some roasted corn thrown in there, too, or some whole black beans (or both). But made just as I describe below, it was so damned good that my husband and I stood over the pot dipping torn pieces of flour tortilla into the stew and OH MY GOD-ing until we finally wrenched ourselves away to watch football.

How to roast green chiles: Preheat your oven’s broiler (mine has a low, medium and high setting – I used the medium setting). Make sure the oven rack is at the highest level (closest to the heating elements). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Wash and dry the chiles, and line them up on the baking sheet. Place under the broiler, and keep an eye on them. Roast for 3-5 minutes, until the chiles are about 70% charred.

Green chiles roasting under the broiler

Use tongs to flip the chiles over, and roast the other side for another 3-5 minutes. This should ABSOLUTELY NOT take more than 10 minutes at the outside. You don’t want them burned, just nicely charred. Again using tongs, transfer the whole chiles to a (non-metal) bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the chiles to “steam” for 20 minutes. Then, remove the chiles from the bowl and peel the charred skin away with your fingers – it should come off very easily. Remove the stem, split the chiles in half, and remove the seeds (I used my fingers). That’s all there is to it!

Green chiles, roasted and peeled

How to peel fresh tomatoes: Get a pot of water boiling on the stove (enough to submerge the tomatoes a couple at a time). Fill a large bowl with water and ice (large enough to submerge the tomatoes). De-stem and wash whole tomatoes. Cut a small X through the skin on the bottom of each tomato (side opposite the stem). Drop tomatoes, a couple at a time, into the boiling water. Count to fifteen-Mississippi (time for fifteen seconds). Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the boiling water and transfer them immediately to the ice water. Submerge them for 10 seconds and remove immediately (otherwise they get waterlogged). Grab the corners of the cut skin on the bottom of the tomatoes and peel down – the skins should peel off easily. And that’s all there is to that! (Here’s a good video tutorial.)

In a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the pork on all sides. Add the onion and garlic to the pork and stir to combine. Incorporate the flour, stirring constantly for about two minutes. Add the potatoes, chiles, tomatoes, jalapeno, and chicken broth. Stir to combine, and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze. Stir in the sugar, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on a low simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1.5 hours, or until the pork is tender. Adjust seasoning as needed.

All the ingredients in the pot!

The finished stew, ready to eat!

If you can POSSIBLY STAND IT, make the stew a day ahead of time. Let it cool completely, then put it in the refrigerator overnight. Reheated the next day, the flavors have had time to really develop. Serve with flour tortillas. You’ll notice that the chiles, onions and tomatoes all but disappear into the almost gravy-like sauce of the stew. If you want larger vegetable pieces use a very large dice. We found that we absolutely loved it the way it was.

I’ve gotten on a Bloody Mary kick here lately. For some reason I found the prospect of making my own intimidating, and my enjoyment of those made at various drinking establishments inconsistent.

But the cravings were real (I mean, come on, drinks that come with snacks!), so I started researching the internet for the Perfect! Bloody! Mary! I filtered through the simplistic, the sweet, the obscure ingredients. What I landed on was an amalgam of several different recipes and theories. Here are the results for your enjoyment; the level of spiciness can be adjusted according to your individual taste.

Don’t worry about the extent of ingredients – once you have “your” way down, you can throw this together in a couple of minutes.

Note: it is important that all of your ingredients are COLD. This makes for the best beverage and less ice-melt.

Makes one beverage. Pour into a 2-cup measuring cup:

– 8 oz tomato juice or bloody mary mix of choice (I use V8 Bloody Mary Mix, or V8 Spicy Hot)
– 2 oz vodka of choice (I’ve been using Stoli)
– A couple of blurts of Worcestershire (a teaspoon if you need to measure)
– A couple of dashes of Tabasco (a half-teaspoon if you need to measure) – more if you like it hot, omit if you don’t like it spicy at all
– A splash of olive juice (a teaspoon…)
– A splash of dill pickle juice (a teaspoon…)
– A splash of pepperoncini juice (…)
– A half-teaspoon of prepared horseradish – more if you like it spicy, omit if you don’t like the stuff
– A squeeze (large wedge) of lemon juice (throw the rind into the bottom of your shaker)
– A squeeze (large wedge) of lime juice (also throw the rind in the shaker)
– A couple of pinches of black pepper
– A couple of pinches of Old Bay seasoning (optional)

Give the ingredients a stir. Then fill your shaker halfway full with ice (on top of the lemon and lime rinds). Pour the mixture into the shaker, cap it, and give it a few vigorous shakes. Pop the cap off the shaker and pour the whole shebang – rinds, ice, and all – into a pint glass or glass of choice. Stick a straw in it and garnish with any or all of the following:

In a heavy pot or dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat and saute the carrots, celery and onion until tender, about five minutes. Add the thyme and sage, and stir. Gradually sprinkle in the flour and whisk until smoothly combined with the butter/veggie mixture, then continue to whisk for about 1 minute until lightly browned. Slowly add in the chicken stock, whisking to incorporate the flour smoothly into the stock. Gradually whisk in the milk.

Add the potatoes and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer (uncovered) until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes. Add the diced cooked chicken, and allow to heat for about one minute. Lower the heat, and gradually add in the shredded cheese, stirring to melt into the stew. Add in the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste (we’re liberal with the pepper).

Serve with a salad and crusty bread or soft potato rolls. It’s excellent if you add a dash of Tabasco to your bowl. And this stew is even better the second day.

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Push the onions to one side of the pan, add the chicken, and sprinkle with the chipotle chile powder, cumin, and salt to taste. Cook, stirring, until most of the chicken is opaque on the outside, 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in 3 cups of the beans and 2 cups of the stock. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer. Partially cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the remaining beans and remaining 1 cup stock. Process to a smooth puree. Stir the bean puree into the soup. Gradually add the half-and-half, stirring as you add it, so it doesn’t curdle. Dip one cup of the soup out and into a bowl, add the sour cream and stir until blended. Gradually add sour cream mixture into the soup (again, this is so it doesn’t curdle). Stir in the cheddar cheese, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste.

It is important not to let the soup boil again after the dairy products have been added, so it doesn’t curdle.

Serve with additional shredded cheese and sour cream, which cuts down the heat if you find it’s too spicy. If you want a thicker consistency, dissolve 3 TBSP of corn starch with 1/2 cup of half-and-half, and stir into the soup before adding the sour cream.

Serve with potato rolls! They’re awesome.

I suppose you could lower the considerable fat content by using fat-free half-and-half, sour cream, and cheese, but where’s the fun in that?

My husband, who is NOTORIOUSLY picky, absolutely raved about this Chicken Noodle Soup. He said it was the best he’d ever tasted, and actually VOLUNTARILY ate it three nights in a row. That’s a record for our household!

The recipe really shines when made with homemade chicken stock, for which I have a great recipe.

Place a heavy soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and herbs. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken stock and bring the liquid to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes. Fold in the chicken, and continue to simmer for another five minutes – I find the noodles are cooked perfectly at this point. Stir in the parsley, the Tabasco and the Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper (taste it first!). Turn off heat but leave pot on the burner, covered, for about 20 minutes to allow the flavors to gather. Serve with crackers or crusty bread.

Now, I made this recipe above and added 1/2 of a 16oz bag of egg noodles, plus another handful. This made the soup VERY noodly. When the soup cooled it looked like the broth really disappeared. However, it’s in there, and we found that we liked the more-noodle-less-broth consistency. Your mileage may vary!